City hires economic development director

Sealy City Council members introduced Robert Worley at a Jan. 22 meeting as the new director of the city’s Economic Development Corp. Worley is greeted by EDC board chairman Brian Lapham and pictured in back from left are City Manager Lloyd Merrell, council members Dee Anne Lerma, Chris Noack and Sandra Vrablec, Mayor Janice Whitehead and council members Jennifer Sullivan, Larry Koy and John Hinze.

Robert Worley started his new job as EDC director on Tuesday.

Posted
Wednesday, January 30, 2019 12:00 am

By April Towery
editor@sealynews.com

Robert Worley began work Tuesday as Sealy’s economic development director, replacing Kim Meloneck, who retired in September.

Worley has served as president/CEO or executive director at the EDCs in Brazoria County, Bryan-College Station and Dumas. He has a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Texas at Austin.

As Sealy’s EDC director, Worley will be responsible for working with the EDC board of directors to recruit new business, provide incentives and create job opportunities.

Board members include chairman Brian Lapham, Billy Schavrda, Sterling Schiller, Adam Burttschell, Wyn McCready and council members John Hinze and Dee Anne Lerma.

“We went through and interviewed [several] different candidates; we had many apply,” Lapham said. “Mr. Worley fulfilled all our qualifications. We would like to see him build Sealy how we feel it should be.”

Worley said he planned to schedule individual meetings with each council member to determine their priorities.

“I’m really looking forward to getting started,” he said. “Thank you for your vote of confidence and I’ll try to make sure you never regret it.”

The council’s decision to hire was unanimous.

“The EDC board spent a lot of time evaluating candidates and interviewing a few of them,” Lerma said. “We picked Mr. Worley and we really think that he will do a great job for this city.”

Prior to the appointment, the council approved changes to the EDC bylaws, as proposed by the EDC board.

“I was pretty excited to see that the EDC was going to start communicating with council by having the executive director give us reports,” said Mayor Janice Whitehead.